In this episode, Jenn, Andrew, and Courtney discuss why your educational philosophy should guide your curricula choices, run through a quick checklist for identifying a solid curriculum, review some caveats (and share some blunders of our own), and talk about annual scheduling, working with family demands and homeschooling, and how to schedule your time during the day. Then we talk about daily checklists, loop scheduling, the spiral notebook method, doing the next thing, and the file folder method. Finally, Jenn rates paper planners.
Brave Writer
The Curriculum Rating Game, Part 4
In this episode, we finish our curriculum rating game, all the way down to Z, and Zaner-Bloser handwriting.
The Curriculum Rating Game, Part 3
Good Enough Homeschool Podcast Eps 22
Good Enough Homeschool Season 1 Ep 19
The Curriculum Rating Game Part 1
Jenn keeps score as she, Courtney, and AJ rate curricula, Yelp style. On deck in this episode are: 100 Easy Lessons, All About Learning, Analytical Grammar, History of US, Seton, Ambleside Online, Art of Problem Solving (Beast Academy), ARTistic Pursuits, Blossom and Root, Barefoot Meandering, Beautiful Mundo, Five in a Row, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, BookShark, Botany in 8 Lessons, Botany in a Day, Building Thinking Skills, Brave Writer, Build Your Library, Calvert, Canon Press, Logos, and Veritas, Matin Latin, Writing & Rhetoric, Latin for Children, Phonics Museum, Classical Conversations, Core Knowledge, Charlotte Mason, Ecce Romani, Evan-Moor, Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool, English from the Roots Up, and Elemental Science.
Good Enough Homeschool S1 Ep 18
Changing Your Homeschool with the Seasons / Pepper & Pine Silk Road Unit Study
“In addition to homeschooling with the calendar seasons, we also face the challenge of homeschooling through life’s seasons. When things in our families may not be ideal or right now when the whole world is in chaos because of the pandemic.”
–AJ Campbell
Links to referenced organizations, books, and websites:
Good Enough Homeschool S1 Ep 17
Secular Bible Study with Christy Knockleby
“families should have access to the same type of historical critical exploration of the Bible that is taught at university. It’s a perspective that says that the Bible was written by human beings over a long period of time, and it was edited by other humans. The writing itself has a history and scholars can attempt to uncover that history. In looking at the Bible, we’re not just looking at the stories, but also possible explanations for why the stories were written, what ideas are promoted within different stories.”
–Christy Knockleby
Links to referenced organizations, books, and websites:
an article with an image of a page of the Talmud https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24367959
National Council for the Social Studies
Guidelines for Teaching about Religion in K–12 Public Schools
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know
The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 5 (Cain)
The King’s Mirror (Speculum Regale–Konungs Skuggsjá)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of “The Bacchae”
Digital Hammurabi YouTube Channel
Good Enough Homeschool S1 Ep 16
English Language Arts: what they are and how to teach them within a classical framework.
Parts of ELA:
Teaching your child to read is perhaps the most difficult and most important job you will ever have as a homeschooling parent. The Simple View formula presented by Gough and Tunmer in 1986 is: Decoding (D) x Language Comprehension (LC) = Reading Comprehension (RC)
Hollis Scarborough, a reading researcher, came up with the analogy of the Reading Rope. Her analogy is that learning to read requires seven strands of education for children to become fluent readers. Addressing each strand is necessary, but insufficient on its own.
Classical education addresses all of them, often with specific curricula.
Decoding (the early years)
Why it matters?
Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 360-407.
Quote: “The increased reading experiences of children who crack the spelling-to-sound code early thus have important positive feedback effects. Such feedback effects appear to be potent sources of individual differences in academic achievement”
- phonological awareness
- Nursery rhymes: “hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock”
- Rhyming stories: Sheep in Jeep; Llama, Llama, Red Pajama, etc.
- Hearing syllables in words: chick-en, ba-na-na, cat-er-pil-lar
- Sound repetition or alliterations: “Oops sounds like loops!” “Betty Botter bought a bit of butter…”
- decoding
- sight recognition
- all of the items listed in decoding, plus
- curricula:
Comprehension (accumulates) — the Matthew Effect
In 1988, Recht and Leslie tested children by dividing them into four groups based on two factors: reading ability and prior knowledge of baseball (creating groups of high-high, high-low, low-high, and low-low). In all measurements, the students with high prior knowledge performed better, regardless of which reading level they had been grouped with. “In light of the importance of adequate prior knowledge, strategy instruction and the knowledge base should be equally considered in the design of instruction.” In other words, we need to give kids background knowledge AND teach them how to decode texts.
How to?
- Diffuse background knowledge
- “field trips to museums, art galleries, and the like, as well as … travel and exchange programs”
- talking with your child–possibly the most important intervention you can do with young children. Erika Christakis wrote a whole book about why it was so important (The Importance of Being Little)
- picture study
- “an ongoing atmosphere of exploration, experimentation, and happy chaos” — Susan Wise Bauer
- Memory Work (AJ! Poetry memorization, etc) Classical education uses memorization as a way of cementing the knowledge gained in the curriculum. Memorization frees up working memory to deal with new cognitive tasks (i.e., what you’re trying to teach them!). It also provides connecting points for new information to build knowledge.
In ELA, that can include things like grammar definitions or more general background knowledge (mythology, proverbs, etc.), but memorizing poetry is the most common and popular type of ELA memory work. As Courtney mentioned, nursery rhymes and tongue twisters build phonemic awareness and help with pronunciation (mention my recent Spanish class). Children’s poetry is often playful and humorous but also introduces simple poetic forms and accustoms children to the rhythm of language. Classic poetry for older students helps exercise the memory and helps them recognize common types of figurative language, which will be important both in literary analysis and in their own writing.
- Spelling -> vocabulary/etymology
- “a systematic curriculum that presents new words in familiar contexts, thereby enabling the student to make correct meaning-guesses unconsciously” — E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
- “In the content areas (history, science, literature, art, music), classical learning provides a [systematic] framework” for learning about new things — Susan Wise Bauer
- curricula
- Spelling Workout
- All About Spelling
- Barton
- Vocabulary from Classical Roots
- Wordly Wise
- language structures/Grammar and composition
- verbal reasoning
- curricula
- Read-alouds/literacy knowledge
- Writing With Ease (curriculum that includes print concepts, genre)
- “The student who is working on ancient history will read Greek and Roman mythology, the tales of the Iliad and Odyssey, early medieval writings, Chinese and Japanese fairy tales, and (for the older student) the classical texts of Plato, Herodutus, Virgil, Aristotle.” — Susan Wise Bauer
- Penmanship
- curricula
- Handwriting Without Tears
- MP’s New American Cursive
- Logic of English–Rhythm of Handwriting
- Getty-Dubay
- curricula
Show notes links:
Living Memory and 101 Poems anthology: https://quidnampress.com/memory-work/
Why Memorize? https://quidnampress.com/why-memorize-in-the-age-of-google/
Good Enough Homeschool S1 Ep 15
Becoming an Educational Architect. We think this is not only the best podcast in quality that we’ve recorded, but it’s also the most important one for you, the listener, to take to heart.
Booklist:
AJ Campbell- (AJC) Courtney Ostaff (CO) Jenn Naughton (JN)
Early Childhood
The Importance of Being Little by Erika Christakis (AJC)
What’s Going on in There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot (CO)
Science of Learning
Make It Stick by Peter Brown et al. (AJC)
How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice by Paul A. Kirschner and Carl Hendrick (CO)
Reading Instruction
Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide (AJC)
Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It by Mark Seidenberg (CO)
Math Instruction
Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma (AJC) (JN)
The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics by Stanislas Dehaene (CO)
Writing Instruction
The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler (AJC) (CO) (JN)
K-12 Homeschooling Guide
The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer (AJC) (CO) (JN)
Classical Education (Theory or History)
Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons (AJC)
Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass (CO) (JN)
More Books for the Avid Reader
Closing of the American Mind by Bloom (CO) paired with Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz (CO)
The Great Tradition by Richard Gamble (AJC)
Useful Posts:
https://goodenoughhomeschool.com/2019/12/01/5-good-books-on-the-why-of-classical-education/
https://goodenoughhomeschool.com/2019/11/23/5-good-books-on-knowing-things/
https://goodenoughhomeschool.com/2019/11/18/five-good-books-on-teaching-math/
People to Follow on Twitter for Solid Educational Info
Daniel Willingham @DTWillingham (AJ) (JN)
Right to Read Project @right2readproj (JN)
Tom Sherrington @teacherhead Curriculum Design (CO)
Harry Fletcher-Wood @HFletcherWood Habit training, “knowing what students know” (CO)
Michael Pershan @mpershan Math Instruction (CO)
Patrice Bain @PatriceBain1 implementing cognitive science at home (CO)
Timothy Shanahan @ReadingShanahan science of teaching reading (CO)
Oliver Lovell @ollie_lovell Cognitive Science in teaching (his podcast is fantastic) (CO)
Stephanie Ruston @Spell2Read how children learn to read (CO)
Jennifer Binis @JennBinis historian of education (CO) (JN)
Vesia @VesiaHawkins Black mother, grandmother, education & reading proponent (CO)
Emily Hanford @ehanford NPR journalist focused on cog sci of reading (CO)
Get Yourself a Plan!
The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise (neoclassical)
https://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-Mind-Classical-Education-Fourth/dp/0393253627/
Core Knowledge Sequence (K-8) – free download, free curriculum (public/charter)
https://www.coreknowledge.org/free-resource/core-knowledge-sequence/
CM Your Way Form Guides (Charlotte Mason)
https://cmplenary.com/product/curriculum-form-guides/
Other works mentioned:
Chetty, Friedman & Rokoff’s research on teacher effectiveness
https://www.nber.org/papers/w17699
The researchED Guide to the Curriculum
https://www.amazon.com/researchED-Guide-Curriculum-evidence-informed-teachers/dp/1912906384/
